Last month Park Vale Capital, a UK based regulated asset management company focused on late stage biotechnology investment deals, announced an agreement with The Academy of Medical Sciences to facilitate advice from its Fellows to our investment team to help drive the translation of research into health benefits. Katherine Priestley, Managing Partner of Park Vale Capital, explains more.

Adequate investment from a range of sources is essential fuel for the innovation pipeline. At Park Vale our experienced biotechnology investment professionals are addressing a particular investment gap through investing in late stage companies with novel medical products and innovations and are actively bringing these companies to commercial success within two years of investments, often more quickly.

Venture capital investment in the biosciences sector is currently under severe constraint exacerbated by the financial crisis of 2008. There has been widespread reduction in new capital available as many traditional fiduciary investors have moved away from this sector due to the long time frames needed to bring biomedical innovations to market and the uncertainty of outcomes. In the short term there is an urgent need for fresh capital and a more sophisticated approach to complete successful late stage projects to deliver innovations to the patient population. The combining of the strengths of the Fellows of the Academy and the investment expertise and industry network of Park Vale Capital to work together on late stage company deals is very timely.

Park Vale has already begun to engage with selected Fellows on active deals in their pipeline. Fellows are chosen for their specialist knowledge and experience, as they relate to target companies; and the initial conversation with Fellows is intended to be brief but robust around the subject matter. Participation by Fellows is optional. Over time, through lecture programmes and meetings, Park Vale is actively seeking to engage Fellows in the discussion of the practices and processes required to drive successful science to commercial success.

The Park Vale investment managers have been successfully investing in biotechnology companies for decades and have participated in the changing investment cycles from the public and private markets predominantly in the US and Europe, including the UK, but also Asia. Park Vale has a strong network of relationships in the UK Biotechnology market and is seeking to make investments in UK companies as part of its portfolio of assets. In addition to direct company investments, Park Vale is focused on greater international collaboration in research and drug development and can also help facilitate the transfer of knowledge and new products to the UK market.

We are committed to the principle of stronger working and communication links between the excellent UK Academic Science base, global fiduciary investment capital and industry, to drive quicker and better outcomes in the translation of science for the benefit of all our communities. By establishing our partnership with the Academy of Medical Science we are hopeful that this proves to be the first of many successful initiatives in this regard.